Bougie on a Budget: Spend Without the Stress | Budget Besties

If the word “budget” makes you want to pour a glass of wine at 9am… stay with me.

This conversation with the Budget Besties is not about restriction. It’s about freedom.

Shana and Vanessa are on a mission to take the shame out of money and replace it with simple, real-life systems that actually work. Because most women aren’t bad with money... they’ve just never been shown how to manage it in a way that fits their life.

And the best part? You don’t have to give up the things you love to make it work.

In this episode:

•  Why budgeting has such a heavy emotional charge for so many women 
•  The difference between a budget and a system 
•  How to simplify, separate, and automate your money 
•  Real client stories that show what’s actually possible 
•  How to create space for the things that matter most to you 

Key Topics:

•  Money shame and mindset 
•  Simple budgeting systems 
•  Organizing your finances 
•  Spending without guilt 
•  Women and financial empowerment 

Resources & Links:

• Budget Besties system: https://budgetbesties.com/penny

When’s the last time you did something just for YOU? 🍷✨
Wine Camp 2026 is your chance to escape, sip fabulous local wines, cruise at sunset, laugh around the fire pit, and soak up the magic of New York’s Finger Lakes.

📍 Dates: July 30–August 2, 2026
🏡 Spots are limited, so grab yours now: https://www.pennyforyourshots.com/winecamp

Bring your besties or come solo—you’ll leave with new favorites either way. Wine Camp 2026 is calling. Are you in?

Want support growing your business? Book a free Discovery Call with Penny: https://tidycal.com/pennyforyourshots/discovery-call

Wine Camp 2026: Join the list or save your spot:
https://www.pennyforyourshots.com/winecamp

Become an Insider for weekly updates, tips, inspiration, and episode extras:
https://www.pennyforyourshots.com/insider

Love cocktails + community? Join the Sipper Club:
https://www.pennyforyourshots.com/sip

Explore all things Penny: coaching, podcast, events, & more:
https://www.pennyforyourshots.com

Follow Penny on Instagram: @penny4yourshots
Or on Facebook: Penny (Kuhlers) Fitzgerald

Transcript

Bougie on a Budget: Spend Without the Stress | Budget Besties
​[00:00:00] 

[00:00:33] Penny Fitzgerald: All right, we're talking about money today. And before you even think about skipping this episode, stay with me for a second because this is not that kind of conversation. This is not about restriction. It's not about guilt, and it's definitely not about spreadsheets that make you wanna pour a glass of wine at 9:00 AM This is about freedom.

Today, I'm joined by the budget besties. Vanessa and Shayna, and what I love is how much this [00:01:00] conversation lines up with what I teach. You don't need more pressure. You need better systems that actually work for your real life. We talk about taking the shame out of money, creating space for the things you actually want. And building a life where you can be what they call bougie on a budget. And honestly, I'm here for that. So if money has ever felt heavy, overwhelming, or just confusing, this episode's gonna give you a whole new perspective and maybe even show you that it's not about doing more, it's about doing things differently.

Here are Shayna and Vanessa, 

I'm 

Vanessa. 

[00:01:39] Vanessa: And I'm Shana. 

[00:01:40] Penny Fitzgerald: It's great to meet you guys, Shana and Vanessa. Okay,

I'm so excited to meet you too. You when you reached out to me, um, you spoke to my soul.

[00:01:49] Shana: Aw, wow. That's a, that's kind of a big deal.

[00:01:55] Penny Fitzgerald: You just have a vibe. It's so fun. And you call yourselves the budget besties. [00:02:00] Right? Love it. Love it. Yes. Love it. 

[00:02:04] Shana: 

[00:02:04] Penny Fitzgerald: would you mind telling me and my audience, um, about yourselves? Like, wherever you wanna start is fine. 

[00:02:11] Shana: Yeah. Okay. Well, don't get carried away Penny, because we'll be here all day.

Um, but yeah, we are for it. Excited. Um, and talk about the B word. Yes. One of our favorite things to talk about. 

[00:02:21] Vanessa: Yeah. So we are best friends and business partners. We've known each other since our boys were four, they're now 17. Oh my gosh. And juniors in high school, but we were teaching FPU. 

[00:02:32] Shana: Yeah. Financial Peace University.

Have you heard of it? No. Yeah. Okay. So yeah. 

[00:02:37] Vanessa: But yeah, he has a course, um, on Financial Peace University, and he just kind of runs you through like his baby steps and everything. And you know, one of the key parts that we realized when we were teaching it was that the budgeting aspect was missing. 

[00:02:49] Shana: Yeah. So we were teaching people about how to achieve financial peace and get outta debt, but we found out that.

No one ever taught them how to budget. and not only do they skip over it, it's sort of this heavy [00:03:00] taboo thing. And, and that's kind of where we found ourselves. Okay, this is what we are gonna do. Mm-hmm. we're gonna hone in on this. We're gonna try to change this conversation from something that's.

You know, restrictive and heavy and judgemental and all that to hopefully something fun and lighthearted. And that's where we started, um, our business. And we've been in business together. Like Vanessa said, the boys are now 17. So we've been in business together for six years doing this. And, um, our kid, we've gone from our, you know, all of our kids being shorter than us.

They're all taller than us. 

[00:03:30] Vanessa: It 

[00:03:30] Penny Fitzgerald: happens. 

[00:03:31] Shana: Yeah. 

[00:03:32] Vanessa: You know, but one of the things too is that people. They feel ashamed because like Shana said, that after budgeting and, and we understand Dave's program is set a certain way, and the idea is that, well, these, you know how to budget. Like he talks about doing it, but then it's the how, right?

Mm-hmm. And so when we come in and people, feel ashamed, they don't know how to do it But like Shana said, they were never actually taught. 

[00:03:55] Shana: Yeah. 

[00:03:56] Vanessa: So when this massive gap that when we were, we realized what was going on, [00:04:00] we're like, oh. We're gonna be the budget besties and we're gonna come in over, see you 

[00:04:04] Shana: .Guys, really nerdy 

[00:04:05] Vanessa: how to do that.

[00:04:06] Shana: We're really nerdy. we like talking about us numbers and budgets, which most people don't. And so we just thought, well, hopefully we can bring something different to the conversation and make it a little more, I mean, literally I have a min, a minions bandaid on my thumb. 

[00:04:20] Vanessa: I'm like, 

[00:04:20] Shana: that's where we're coming at it from, like real life.

That's a great point. Not just, you know, not being restricted, but how to budget for real life because mm-hmm. You know, what we found is people would come and be like, well, um, I, I don't, I think I got it. And then something like, my kids come up, or this vacation that I was supposed to take, or Christmas, I forgot about Christmas.

And they're like, and I can't figure out how to stop all of that, you know, craziness from the budget. So anyway, yeah, that's a little bit about who we are and what we started. So, yeah. 

[00:04:47] Penny Fitzgerald: Cool. Can we back up just a second? You, you mentioned shame, um, when you were talking about it, I. Don't you feel that a lot of people have stuff around money?

[00:04:59] Shana: Mm-hmm. [00:05:00] 

[00:05:00] Penny Fitzgerald: And some of it's shame, some of it's, you know, the way we grew up, or it may be, an experience we had as we're growing and learning. Mm-hmm. But how do you shift someone from that feeling of shame to empowerment and kind of helping them understand, well, oh no, you just don't have all the tools you need, or all the information you need.

how do you make that shift for people? 

[00:05:23] Vanessa: You know, I think it's different for everyone depending on where they're coming from. So we've had a lot of couples that come in and they have money baggage from their, maybe on previous marriage, maybe from their childhood, maybe from a job, a career. Uh, you know, like a, they started a company and things happen.

So there's, there's a lot of different reasons, but I think just showing them that it's not them, you know, a lot of it, they really have that shame for themselves. It's not them and that they just need the tools. They were never taught properly how to do this. And then once we do that for them, once we show them that it's not that hard.

Well, and well, let's just talk about how there's a [00:06:00] taboo against the word, uh, the taboo, like money, like budget, the word budget is a taboo word. And nobody wants to say it. Nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody wants to do it because they think it's so restrictive. Mm-hmm. So once we really break that down and we talk about.

What was going on in their past, and we give them everything that they need. They realize that it's not that hard, and it actually gives them the freedom and the permission to spend. 

[00:06:22] Shana: And I also think part of what the shame is, they think that they should already know. They think some, everybody has this magic belief, well, obviously I should already know I'm, I, you know, I make six figures at my job or whatever.

I should already know this well, no, you shouldn't. So that, I think, you know, I think that's part of it that, that people deal with. And we also know that they, you know, like one thing we hear a lot, um, Penny is, I'm bad with money. It's, it's like, no, actually you're not, you're not actually bad with money.

You've been making a lot work. With what you got going on. What we find is it's actually, it's not that. Mm-hmm. It's, you know, people have, uh, they make good money, but they have nothing to show for it. It's not actually because they're overspending or [00:07:00] they're bad with money, as they like to say. It's simply because it's disorganized.

That's it. It's, it's, it's not like we're, we're doing all these shopping sprees or doing all this crazy life. It's, it's, we have found through what, what what we've done with our clients and, and what we've done in our business is it's, it's just a lack of organization. Mm-hmm. And once we can do that, they have these aha moments, they start to realize, oh, I ha I do make good money and look at all it can do.

And, and now that I just have a system like, you know, uh, what we find is a lot of times people were relying on willpower. Or their budget 

[00:07:31] Vanessa: to do it themselves. 

[00:07:32] Shana: And we don't want, none of us have time for that. Like, we wanna take as many decisions, as much willpower out of any part of our lives as possible.

And, you know, use our, you know, and you'll be, you'll be better versed to talk about this, but use sort of our angel self to set things up. To set systems up and then hopefully we, those guardrails will just allow us to stick to the goals that we want. And that's what we, that's what we've been able to, um, put into our, uh, into our system.

[00:07:55] Vanessa: It's like the difference between going grocery shopping when you're hungry and you make really, [00:08:00] versus going grocery shopping with the right mindset and the right tools and the right. Um. Uh, like she said, guardrails to be able to make the good decisions at the beginning so that way you are successful through that entire shot.

But, you know, we talk about the willpower because we're, we're, uh, depending on our willpower to do the budgeting, we don't do it because we don't have time for it. And so there's 73% of Americans that don't actively budget. 

[00:08:25] Shana: Yeah. Wow. 

[00:08:25] Vanessa: We did a, a, a national research study, but with a third party company, and that was the findings of it.

And that is huge. Yeah. So, yes, people don't want to do it because they don't have time to do it. They don't know how to do it. They don't know the right way to do it, so then they just don't do anything. It's that decision fatigue. 

[00:08:41] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Well, and words are so powerful, right? I mean, if we tell ourselves I'm bad with money.

[00:08:46] Shana: Mm-hmm. 

[00:08:46] Vanessa: Done. 

[00:08:47] Penny Fitzgerald: That's ordering it up, you know, it's like, okay. 

[00:08:50] Shana: Self-fulfilling prophecy. Right? Yeah. 

[00:08:51] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah. So you mentioned, um, a process that you use, like where do you, how do you start, how do you [00:09:00] get people going in the right direction? 

[00:09:03] Shana: Well, that's what we figured out, Penny, is people did not need another budget.

They needed a budget system. Mm-hmm. And, and you know, you can put words in paper. Words on, on a piece of paper and then call it a budget. It doesn't do anything. And, and again, people still don't know what to do with their hands. Mm-hmm. So we figured out that, and it's true. Like that's what, just tell me what to do with my hands.

Yep. You know, this is, I just need to know, get the know and get and get out and get in and get out. Right. But we figured out that, um, we can help them organize their money using their bank. Right. To simplify. Separate and automate their budget. So they don't have to rely, like we said, on their own willpower.

[00:09:41] Vanessa: Yeah. Because we know that the more that they're in it, 

[00:09:44] Shana: the 

[00:09:44] Vanessa: more that they're touching it, the more that they're trying to do it manually, the more they're gonna mess it up. So we've created a system that does it for you. 

[00:09:52] Shana: Yeah. 

[00:09:52] Vanessa: So you don't have to rely on yourself. Mm-hmm. Because you've got sports, you got kids, you got school, you have work, you have um, dinner, you [00:10:00] have your career.

Like, there's so many other things that your mind is focused on as it should be. Finances should not be like this extra weight and this monkey on your back that's dangling, waiting for you to handle it. Mm-hmm. 

[00:10:12] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. Okay. So working with people and getting them started on this. Um, what is the most important thing to do in the beginning?

Like if you're, or like who do you, I guess, who do you work with? Do you work with people who are already struggling or, I mean, I'm sure there's a gamut of people that you work with, but tell me about that a little bit. 

[00:10:34] Shana: That's such a great point. Um, yes. What we always say, it's not an income problem, so people can come, come with to us from, with really any, in any position.

It's not usually an income problem, it's everything else. It's the habits, it's the behaviors, that's all of that kinda stuff. Which again, you're, you would know, you're well versed in all of that. So for example. We had, I, I remember one of our clients, she said, um, I'll do this thing with you, but I'm not giving up my restaurants and I'm not giving up travel.

And I'm [00:11:00] like, okay, nobody wanted to make you do that. We we're never gonna, we were never gonna make you do that. Right. And, and she didn't. She ended up, um, specifically she paid off. Credit, uh, two credit cards. Mm-hmm. She had a, our daughter's wedding, which gave us like, our lives flashed before our eyes. We started taking bucket for her daughter's wedding and, and as she said, she never gave up her restaurant budget.

There were two of them right in the house and they had a thousand dollars restaurant budget a month and they still paid off at. Right. And they went, wow. The daughter's wedding and in stuff. And that's really where we try to. Like, we just need to look at your numbers and see what you're, what you're capable, you like, what your money can do for you.

[00:11:35] Vanessa: Well, and mm-hmm. I think it brings back to this, the, the taboo word of a budget, and people think that it's supposed to be restrictive. Mm-hmm. And it come to us and we're like, look, we want you to be bougie on a budget. That's our tagline. Like, we're excited for you to be bougie on a budget because it means something different for everyone.

You know, what's bougie for Shana is different than what's bougie for me and our clients. And so we find out what's important for them. We find out what their goals are, [00:12:00] what makes them excited, um, and we gear their budget around that. And that means that you don't have to live on beans and rights. Mm-hmm.

To be able to live the life you want to be able to pay off debt. And I think that that's the big thing is, you know, one of the intros to our podcast is. You can pay off debt and you can still have your pumpkins, spice lattes. And people are like salt. 

[00:12:19] Shana: Yeah, 

[00:12:19] Vanessa: because, because they wanna know that you can do both.

And when we first started our business, of course we were 

[00:12:25] Shana: mm-hmm. 

[00:12:26] Vanessa: Trained by Dave Ramsey. So we were doing a lot of things the way that we were trained. And the more and more clients we coached, we realized, so like they said, no thank you. We want to still have a life, we wanna go to a restaurant, we wanna have date night, we wanna take our kids to Disney.

But can we do both? And we came up with a system that allows them to do that. Mm-hmm. And they're so thankful for that. 

[00:12:46] Penny Fitzgerald: That's so cool. It's, it just sounds like it's a matter of prioritizing what's important for you and your family versus this is the cookie cutter solution for everybody. 

[00:12:54] Shana: Yes. Yes. Penny.

That's, you hit the nail on the head. It's that, that, and I think that's what paralyzes people. They try, [00:13:00] they look at these other cookie clutter solutions, as you said, and they're like, I don't see how that works in my life. And so, and, and we don't either. We get it. We get it. That's why we created, like We, so we went, um, you know, like we said, we've been doing this for years and we tried to find a budget that we could use for our clients.

Right, 

[00:13:15] Vanessa: like ond online, someone 

[00:13:16] Shana: else that had had already done the work. And we'll just use that with our clients as we coach them through all, all of the things and we can find one. And we realized this is again, part of the problem. There's, there's weird words out there, like fixed and variable expenses.

People are like, what does that even mean? I don't understand. Some systems as you, as you mentioned, that are so cookie cutter, 50, 30, 20. And they're like, but I don't have money to eat. If I do that, I don't understand how, you know, so we came up with a very simple five column budget. Mm-hmm. It's all on one page.

It's very simple and what it does is it matches what your money does. It actually matches where, what happens with your money. And tells you what to do with your hands, is what we like to say. 

[00:13:53] Vanessa: Yeah. So we kind of break it up into your income. Your debt payments, your bill payments, your spending, and your [00:14:00] savings.

I'm like, it's that simple. 

[00:14:01] Shana: Yeah. 

[00:14:02] Vanessa: Five simple columns. It, like Shana said, it all fits on one page and that's really important to us. When we came to the designer, we said, look, 

[00:14:09] Shana: mm-hmm 

[00:14:09] Vanessa: we wanna budget, but it has to be on one eight by 11 sheet of paper. And he goes, um, and we said, we believe in you. 

[00:14:15] Shana: Yeah, 

[00:14:15] Vanessa: we know you can do it.

And and he did. He worked really hard to make that happen because our clients, when we tell them, look, you have the option to print this out and work on it if you want. 'cause some people love digital, some people love hands-on. And so we wanted to appease both, and so we created this budget. That is so simple.

Unlike Shana says, it works with the flow and how you handle your money throughout the month. 

[00:14:36] Shana: Mm-hmm. 

[00:14:36] Vanessa: Yeah. Are you making money? Are you paying money? Are you spending money? Are you saving money? Like, that's it, that's all you. Those are the only decisions that you have to make when you're making your budget.

Um, and it, again, it matches your real life and what you are doing every day. 

[00:14:49] Shana: And so that's kind of how we simplified it. And then one of our big other, um, things that we do teach is to separate it. So, and that's what the budget reflects. We ha you're gonna have a separate account [00:15:00] for your bills and that's all it's gonna do.

You're gonna have separate account for your spending, and that's all it's gonna do. And then you're gonna have separate accounts for your savings, and that's all that's gonna do. And it's just separating it. And it makes it so much more simple because what people are doing is they have all of these transactions, their whole budget, their whole life in finances is coming out of one account.

They just wonder, um, 

[00:15:21] Vanessa: why isn't it working? 

[00:15:21] Shana: Yeah. I don't understand. And they're at, they're at like checkout for, you know, groceries or whatever. They're like, did the rent get paid? Do I, did I pay that, uh, that vacation payment? What's still pending? Yeah. Like, oh, how much money do I have? Which card 

[00:15:33] Penny Fitzgerald: do I use?

[00:15:35] Shana: Exactly. We don't have time for that. And that's when we were talking about earlier, we wanna take the decision fatigue out of this. If you simplify it by getting it all on one page, which is really the most important step, and then you separate it. Mm-hmm. Like, we just feel like. It makes, it takes all of the guesswork out.

It takes all of your dec, like last minute decisioning. You don't have to do any of that. 

[00:15:52] Vanessa: Well, and then the last part of that is the automation, like we alluded to at the beginning, is you can automate, you can use your bank to automate all of this. [00:16:00] So that way once you set your budget up on paper or in in electronically, and you say, this is what I want it to do for me, you can go set the automations up so it happens for you automatically.

Throughout the month, we like to say automagically. 

[00:16:12] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:16:12] Vanessa: And then you don't have to do anything. You know, for instance, my husband gets paid every Wednesday on Thursday mornings. All the automations happen for me and I didn't do anything. Mm-hmm. But go take my debit card to the store and go buy bread.

Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Like that's mm-hmm. Or, or go to have a, a lunch date with my husband on Thursdays. 'cause that's our day off together. So it's just, there's nothing else that really has to happen a lot once you get it all situated. 

[00:16:37] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay, so tell me, I'm sure that you have lots of stories about clients who have been there, done that, and have gone through some stuff.

Can you gi give me an example of someone that you've worked with that's like, wow, what's it meant for them? What's the difference in their lives? 

[00:16:51] Shana: Oh man. Okay. We've been doing this for a while, and like you said, we have so many stories and you know, I have one of our first clients and she's actually still with us.

There's a long [00:17:00] story to it, but she came to her first session and this, um, we did, we did her sessions in person. We do 'em virtually, um, now, but. She brought a bottle of wine, which is perfect for this. 

[00:17:10] Penny Fitzgerald: She's my girl. 

[00:17:11] Shana: Yeah. I was like, um, I would have some, but I'm gonna be doing math, so we'll just, I'll just save a little bit for me at the end of the session, right?

Yeah. She came with a bottle of wine, which I think a lot of your listeners could understand. She was so anxious to look at her numbers, to talk about the numbers. She didn't even wanna know, she didn't wanna do the math. And so that's where she started off. And um, and now she's to the point where she, so, you know, Vanessa talked about we have separate accounts.

She has, you know, money going to her personal spending. She has money in her groceries. Um, she has her savings buckets for travel, for Christmas, for homeschool, all the things that she does. And it all happens automatically. So much to the, so much so that, um, one last summer, her husband was diagnosed with cancer.

And that obviously stopped everything in their tracks. Their whole life stopped in their tracks while they were dealing with that. And [00:18:00] she did come back a, you know, after a month, uh, to coaching and say, I didn't do anything. I didn't have to do anything with my finances. My bills were already because of the system that we, we, we helped her set up.

Bills were already set, uh, paid. Every time, every, uh, two weeks money went into her groceries account, money went into her spending account, and every two weeks, money went into her, every savings bucket that her and her husband had already decided were important to them, their version of Gucci. Right? It all happened automatically.

Nothing that she, she could be focused on him. 

[00:18:29] Vanessa: Yeah. 

[00:18:29] Shana: On taking to his appointment. She did not have to worry about money, and that's what we really want for everyone. 

[00:18:34] Vanessa: I mean, imagine going through a situation like that and being able to be fully present. On the situation at hand and not have to worry about your finances.

[00:18:43] Shana: Mm-hmm. And, and imagine point from having a bottle of wine. 

[00:18:47] Vanessa: Yeah. 

[00:18:47] Shana: To not even having to look at it. And it's all running and, and you can be really proud that your savings are stacking up and you're not using credit cards anymore and you always have money for gas. 

[00:18:55] Vanessa: In her second session, she came with two beers.

[00:18:57] Shana: Yeah. Let's just, let's not look like it was overnight 

[00:18:59] Vanessa: [00:19:00] discussion. Right. No, it's not Right. But I'm just like, there was a graduation. Part, you know, there's, she, she turned into this person 

[00:19:06] Shana: mm-hmm. 

[00:19:07] Vanessa: Where like str finances weren't even a problem for her anymore. 

[00:19:10] Shana: Yeah. 

[00:19:10] Vanessa: You know, I have, I had a client at, her husband's a lawyer.

She is a stay at home mom with three boys, and vacations were a non-negotiable for them. He worked really hard and she said, look, I can't take this off the table. We saved $20,000 a year for her and her family to be able to go on vacations. So Disney 

[00:19:30] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. 

[00:19:31] Vanessa: Family weekend trips, different things. Right. All while they were paying off debt.

[00:19:35] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:19:36] Vanessa: So they transformed who they were. They found out their why. And actually I will say this was a situation where they were living way beyond their means and living a lifestyle that was more that, um, what his family wanted him to live like his his dad. What he what? His dad. His 

dad 

[00:19:51] Vanessa: Expectations.

Yeah. His expectations of what his son, how his son should live his life. And they kind of came together. After a couple coaching sessions with me, which I [00:20:00] did never suggested this, but they said, we realize that this house that we're living in is not us. It's not who we are. This isn't, we don't want to be house poor.

And, um, anyways, they made the decision to move into a house that was them, that fit their lifestyle that they absolutely loved. And again, that is not what we decide, but that was them through coaching and me just asking random, generalized questions, figuring out that, oh 

[00:20:25] Shana: yeah, 

[00:20:25] Vanessa: we're living a life that doesn't make us happy.

That doesn't bring us joy. Let's do this thing over here, and we're able to do way more with our money. Yeah. And bring us so much more peace. 

[00:20:35] Shana: And it reminds me a lot of what you do, Penny, because what really a lot of what we're doing is holding space for people to figure this out on their own right. Um, and asking questions that lead to their own conclusions.

And the big part of the problem that people have is they just haven't looked at their numbers. They don't know. They don't know what's possible. And, and, and you know, one of the the coolest things that we see, we have no science to back it up, [00:21:00] but one of the coolest things that we see is once you get on a budget, once you start putting money where you want it, you've decided your dreams, your hopes, all of that, people naturally stop overspending or they naturally like reduce.

They're spending because they know it's working. They can see where their money's going. They actually know where it's going instead of like wondering where it went. Right. And it's the coolest thing. And so we just know that, that that's how this, how it works when you look right. Mm-hmm. When you acknowledge and you see something from what it is, and then you have power in that versus the, you know, the head in the sand.

Approach. That's when chaos is just happening and, um, people are, you're capable of so much more than you realize is, you know, you just have to take the time to look at it. 

[00:21:39] Vanessa: I'm gonna add one more thing to that too. I had a client tell me one time, she said, because I knew I had my money coming tomorrow on payday, like it was automatically going to be.

Um, replenished. She said, I didn't feel the urge to have to go out on Amazon and like buy all the things. 

[00:21:55] Shana: Mm-hmm. 

[00:21:56] Vanessa: Like Shana said, when naturally, when you know that you [00:22:00] have an abundance of money coming to you, always, there's less of an urge to when there is money in the account to blow it all. Because usually when they're, when you see money.

And you have one account doing everything. You don't know if the mortgage has been paid. You don't know when the water is gonna pull. You don't know when this credit card payment's gonna come out. You don't know when the sports fees are coming out or if they have, or if that check cleared, right? There's so many questions and so if you see money in the account, you're like, oh, I'm gonna take advantage of it, and I'm going to the store and I'm getting, you know, X, Y, and z.

Versus if everything is a little more organized and separated and you know exactly what you have for gas and groceries, bills and your personal money, and you know that that's always coming to you every month, there's less of an urge to just. Go out and overspend. It's like she said, you don't have science behind it, but it happens.

It's happened year after year. 

[00:22:46] Penny Fitzgerald: Well, I can see that where you would have a purpose, you know, you have a greater purpose or a greater goal of, you know, taking the trips or having the lattes or whatever is that's important to you. You're bougie. I can see [00:23:00] where, you know, when you have that clear picture and you know where you are.

That it would be a lot easier to stay focused on that end goal. 

[00:23:06] Vanessa: Mm-hmm. 

[00:23:07] Penny Fitzgerald: And we carry so much from our past. Right. Like where you were saying the, the family that was living up to their dad, her, his dad's expectations. 

[00:23:16] Vanessa: Yep. 

[00:23:16] Penny Fitzgerald: That's therapy more than coaching, you know? 

[00:23:19] Vanessa: Yeah. We call ourselves like marriage counselors, unofficially, unofficial, unlicensed, 

[00:23:23] Penny Fitzgerald: unofficial.

[00:23:24] Shana: But again, you know, again, a lot of times it's just giving you the time and space mm-hmm. To talk through something that you have been avoiding. And, um, we had a couple, we love them so much. We had a couple that we just, uh, graduated and they. Um, she was hiding credit card debt, which we, in our national study, we Oh, that's like a, it's a lot more people than we would think in a, in America.

Wow. They're hiding debt or, or hidden savings depending on which, uh, part of the spectrum. Mm-hmm. And she didn't, but she didn't wanna tell him because she felt like it was her responsibility to pay off and she didn't wanna burden him. And they were just kind of living this separate financial lives, which again, comes from your money, [00:24:00] baggage, however you were, quote unquote, taught how to deal with money.

That's kind of what you're gonna probably do in marriage anyway as well. And eventually, once they were working together, she just, we, we were all working. She came to him, she said what it was, and he said, oh, I have that in the bank. Let's just pay it off. And she was like, wait, what? And like he just had grace as, as you know, not always the case.

Yeah. But this was such a wonderful story. He had the grace, they paid it off and now they're just, they're building their Montana. They wanna build, move to Montana with their horses. That's their fun, their savings bucket that they're funding together now because they were able to come together. Mm-hmm.

Talk about these things. Stop avoiding them and get on the same page, you know? Sometimes it's like life happens so fast that we stop dreaming and we stop thinking about what are we excited about? Well, whatever you, if you can just take time to think about that. Your money is what is big part of what's gonna get you there, and that is what you're talking about when I know that I'm funding that I don't need the $20 thing off on Amazon all of a sudden, you know, like, 'cause I have some mm-hmm.

Bigger purpose and bigger vision. 

[00:24:57] Penny Fitzgerald: You know, I hear that all the time, especially from women. [00:25:00] That they, they're busy putting one foot in front of the other. Mm-hmm. They're just doing the daily things. They're living for everyone else. They're supporting their family. They're going to work, they're coming home, they're doing whatever, you know, around the house.

It's just you get caught up in the daily busyness that you don't think about. What did, what was that dream that I had? What's that thing I wanted to do? Or what's that? What was important to me? You know, all of it. 

[00:25:25] Shana: Story like that with one of our other first clients. They, um, I remember she paid off her van.

It was called Havana. That was the name. I just wanna, I just needed you to know that it's really, I love 

[00:25:34] Penny Fitzgerald: that. 

[00:25:35] Shana: Anyway, um, she, again, three kids in the middle of homeschooling, like you said, just in the thick of things. And there was this yoga certification program that she wanted to do. And she's like, well, maybe next year.

I just, and I, and I, I told her, I said, Hey, um, you've saved up the money or like you've done the hard work, pay off debt to stop spending everything that y'all are making. You could pay for this in two months. Like [00:26:00] we can just set aside the money based on the budget system that we had, and you can do it.

And she was like, oh, really? Mm-hmm. I was like, yeah. And it's like what you said, it's, you can, like, what do you want? What do you wanna do? Mm-hmm. And that's what makes the work, uh, the quote unquote work of setting up this budget system worth it because you get to do what you wanna do. 

[00:26:16] Vanessa: Well, and I think also it takes sometimes somebody else coming in and having that second mm-hmm.

Second set of eyes on it because 

[00:26:23] Shana: permission. Yep. 

[00:26:24] Vanessa: You've been in it for so long, it's, you see it one way, usually like this tunnel vision way, because that's all you've ever known how to look at it. It's all you've ever seen. But somebody else coming in like Sha going, uh, you have the money right here, but she couldn't see it because in her eyes it's always been accounted for.

It's always been given or put towards something else. Never has she had that money to be able to be spent on herself. But having somebody allowing you to, to see it in a new way or just that permission to spend the money Yeah. Knowing that everything else is still being taken care of. It just puts a different perspective on it, and I think it just [00:27:00] like releases that weight and gives them the freedom to, to buy things that they want.

[00:27:03] Shana: Yeah, and, and to your point, what our system, you know, these women that are putting one foot in front of the other, that are putting everyone else before them. That is, and, and that's what really, you know, that's really what fires us up, because those are the same women that are saying, I'm bad at money. No, actually, everybody, every day is coming at you with a different bill, a different need, a different financial thing.

And you obviously, it's, it's overwhelming and you don't know how, yet nobody's ever taught you how to deal with that. That's why our system is what is, is, is helping you because it. It separates everything so that there's clarity. Like I look at my bank, I look at my bank app, and I have money for spending.

That's one thing. The other thing that it does, and all the bills are always taken care of, like it's all good. But the other thing, and this seems trivial Penny, but it's really important, is we demand. We demand that you set up a personal budget, a personal 

[00:27:53] Vanessa: non-negotiable 

[00:27:54] Shana: spending budget for you. You're gonna have stuff for your kids taken care of.

If your husband needs stuff [00:28:00] that's gonna be taken care of, the bills are gonna be taken care of, gas is gonna be taken care of, groceries, that's all separate. And then you are gonna have your own account with your name on it. Mm-hmm. That says my spending money. And you're gonna be allowed to spend money on yourself when you want because you work hard and you deserve that.

And, and we just want you to get the sys your money organized to where. Like you said, every, you're giving to everyone else, we want you to have something for you too. 

[00:28:22] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. That, that has got to be a weight lifted off of some of these, the, some of your clients. I would think that, you know, just knowing that, okay, I've got this.

But you know, getting back to what you were, um, saying about, you know, getting it organized and looking at it from the outside. In, you can see it, you know, I think when you're in the thick of it, you're so used to, no, I've gotta save this, save this, save this. That you don't think about that spending account.

You don't think that there is possibility in the day-to-day or just, you know, having something luxurious. That's just for me. 

[00:28:58] Vanessa: Well, well, and what we [00:29:00] see is if you don't have that money for yourself, you're going to pull it from somewhere anyways. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So when we talk about, you know, people that overspend.

It's not that. It's that you see money and for the one time you're like, oh, I need to get this thing. But if you have that money specifically set aside for that reason or purpose anyways, then you have the permission to spend it. But the problem is that it's never there. So, no, we have a little, a fun, we have a fun story that, um, we are, we're putting in our book and it's basically the mom that set aside money for her herself to be able to get a pedicure and have lunch with their girlfriend.

But after a long day of. You know, taking the kids to the, to the, to the game. And oh, they need now they're going out to dinner after the game and oh, now they need laundry soap, and oh, oh, she just looked down in her car, doesn't have gas. So by the time it's all said and done, that money that she pulled out to spend on herself is now gone because that money that was supposed to go towards everything else wasn't there.

Yeah, because we didn't designate it specifically to go ahead and take care of that stuff. So she just pulled from her own [00:30:00] money. So ev you know, eventually that money is gonna get spent on something. What we want you to do is organize it in a way that everything is designated and all your money is in a place where you know where it's supposed to be.

When you go to pull it for that thing, and then, hey, guess what? You can still go out to lunch and have that pedicure with your girlfriend because that money is completely separate than everything else. 

[00:30:20] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. So, so getting it set up and getting it organized and having those buckets, those five columns, that's, I'm sure that's the most important part.

Right. So you would be getting. Like the bills all set up. So you have a plan that, and you know that, okay, this is gonna come out for this and this is coming out for that. Yeah. What do you do if someone comes to you with an actual income problem where they're not. They don't have enough. 

[00:30:48] Shana: Yeah. Well, so that the first thing we do with whether we, what, whatever your situation is, is, is, like we said, put it all on one page and our, so our budget system starts with your income, which is the best number.

[00:31:00] Everybody's like, excited, positive, and then we go see debt minimums because we just gotta get those out of the way. You know, real quick, what, however much you're paying on debt. In the minimum payments, then your bills, right? And then we gotta go through your bills. And your bills are anything with a due date, right?

And so that's some, sometimes that's where things have gotten a little more complicated these days because a lot of times we have a lot of subscriptions and stuff, so you might be able to look at that. That's one of the columns that you could look at and see, or maybe can renegotiate some. Your cable or whatever.

Mm-hmm. Not your cable. Nobody has anymore your internet or, or your friendship. And then, and so it's doing the math as you go, Penny, like income minus debt, minus bills. Now I ha I see on my budget how much I have left over for spending. 

Mm-hmm. 

Right. And then I need to put in spending, I need to put groceries, I need gas, I need personal spending, maybe, uh, restaurants.

And then I can really see, like you said, if it's an income problem. Or not, or if there's, if I just need to tweak my spending or if I need to tweak some bills. Um, and then if there's no money left to go to savings, that's when you really, really know. It's probably an income problem. And a lot of our [00:32:00] clients, um, they do, they pick up extra overtime or they, you know, do something on the side.

So, so they can pay off debt in order to create that wiggle room. Mm-hmm. Right. So they do increase their income maybe for a little while so that they don't have so much bills, like the debt minimums. They can pay those off, and then they'll have wiggle room with a regular income, and then they can start.

Saving and doing all the things that they wanna do with their budget. 

[00:32:22] Vanessa: I mean, we've been doing this now for six years. We started in 2019, um, coming together and really creating, you know, what, what the system start is gonna look like for our clients. And rarely is it an income problem because the majority of it is, is they're, uh, they haven't price quoted, uh, their, their insurance, right?

They haven't re readjusted things on their budget. Are paying for multiple subscriptions that they don't even use. They are saying that they're, um, budgeting $4,000 a month for going out to eat, but they really only spend 2000, or they just, they don't have the time to, to have grocery, you know, grocery money.

So they're, they're blowing it over here. It, it's [00:33:00] really not necessarily an income problem, it's just that it's unorganized. They don't know where their money is going. And when we put it all on paper and we say, Hey, you have 20 different Apple subscriptions coming out. Because you know when you tie it to Apple Pay or whatever, all it says is Apple.

You don't actually know what you're paying for, 

[00:33:16] Penny Fitzgerald: right? Oh wow. 

[00:33:17] Vanessa: You are paying for what? What is this? And then they go and they're like, I, those are double apps that my husband's paying for Netflix and I'm paying for Netflix 

[00:33:23] Penny Fitzgerald: so many times 

[00:33:24] Vanessa: and we haven't 

[00:33:24] Penny Fitzgerald: talked really. 

[00:33:26] Vanessa: In six months. Yeah. I had a lady that was paying for two completely different auto insurance policies at the same time.

Oh my 

[00:33:32] Penny Fitzgerald: gosh. 

[00:33:33] Vanessa: Because it was a car that they had sold over a year ago. Right. So it's really just looking at your money and just seeing where it's going. Yeah. But really it's just because they don't know what's going out. And how much they have left to spend either on themselves or gased groceries or on their kids.

[00:33:48] Shana: And that's why the first step is putting it on that one page. Like we, that's why we did it on one page so that you can actually see everything that's happening. Like Vanessa said, that's usually like, the main problem is we, it's, it's all over the [00:34:00] place and we don't know, but we want. That's why we want it to be on one page.

We feel like if it's on one page pending, it can't be that bad. It's not hard. Like it's not that bad. It's just one page. It's not that much math. It's not 

[00:34:09] Penny Fitzgerald: overwhelming. It's 

[00:34:09] Shana: just one 

[00:34:10] Vanessa: page. Like after subscriptions coming outta this credit card, half of them coming out of this account, half of them coming outta, and it's just such a mess.

They don't know what's going on. So our first step is to simplify. It's very strategic. It's very on purpose that it's the first thing, um, because we need to be able to come together and just. Just look at your numbers and we call it wrecking balls when it's up here and you think when you, what's going on, you don't, you know, a meth, but if you can put it on paper, it's a lot less scary.

[00:34:35] Shana: Listen, we have calculators for a reason. People, yes. Like any green calorie is doing math in your head, in public, or any of that, so yeah, 

[00:34:42] Penny Fitzgerald: it's not necessary. Yeah, it's over overrated. 

[00:34:47] Shana: That's so 20th century. Yes. 

[00:34:50] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my gosh. Okay, so, so tell me a little bit, I mean, you, you hinted at a few of the stories that, you know, people have these double sub subscriptions and these double [00:35:00] payments that they're doing.

What are some other horror stories that you've seen that you've been able to help people cook, get through? 

[00:35:06] Vanessa: Hmm. 

[00:35:07] Penny Fitzgerald: Because I imagine some of my listeners are going, oh my God, I wonder how many of these things are happening to me. And, you know, gives 'em a spark to go look. 

[00:35:14] Vanessa: You know, I think one of the things that people run a, the reason why they run away from budget so quickly is because they try to put unrealistic numbers down in their spending section.

So, you know, for instance, I had a client, um, she had six kids, so her husband was a chiropractor, wonderful family. She said, look, we spend $4,000 a month on eating out. She said, because we don't have to. 

[00:35:34] Penny Fitzgerald: Dang, 

[00:35:35] Vanessa: they're all in sports. We have a lot going on. And I said, okay. And she said, well, but you know, we're doing this budget thing and so I'm gonna cut that down to a thousand next month.

And I said, yeah, I don't think that that's realistic. So I think. What we see is that people try to put these unrealistic numbers in their budget because that's what they think that they should have or what people tell them. Like Shana said, these cookie cutter budgets are what you should be spending on a family.

[00:35:59] Shana: Mm-hmm. 

[00:35:59] Vanessa: Uh, [00:36:00] size of eight. Uh, but no, I think you need to put, your budget needs to match your real life. You need to put realistic numbers in there. So that way it helps you be successful. Otherwise you're going to fail. You're gonna say, it's the budget, you're gonna say, you can't do this. You're bad with money, you're gonna shame yourself and all that.

And the reality is, is no, you just need to make your budget match what you have going on every day. 

[00:36:22] Shana: Okay. But I, I do wanna give one horror story, Vanessa, like, yes, 

[00:36:25] Penny Fitzgerald: please. 

[00:36:26] Shana: Because I feel like, um, it still gives us hives. Okay. So Vanessa had a client that, um. She had, we have a debt tracker in our budget system.

Oh, this 

[00:36:36] Vanessa: girl. 

[00:36:37] Shana: Like 

[00:36:37] Vanessa: we talked about really bad ones. Which else? 

[00:36:39] Shana: Um, tracker where we've just put, again, getting it all on one page. Like what, what do you have No judgment. Like let's just Yeah. Just math on paper and, well, it's never, I don't know if it's ever been as bad we've had, so we have how many lines is in the dead track?

30. 30 lines. 

[00:36:55] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. 

[00:36:55] Shana: And, um, that wasn't enough. They had so many, they had more, right? [00:37:00] More than 30 debts that we had to live. So 

[00:37:01] Penny Fitzgerald: like what kind of debts are we talking about? 

[00:37:04] Shana: Student loan. Like, you know, 

[00:37:04] Penny Fitzgerald: you've got your home, you. 

[00:37:06] Shana: Student loans are big Penny. They really, um, okay. If you actually go to break down your student loans, there's usually like several of them.

It's, you might have one big lump, um, loan that you're looking at. Mm-hmm. When you break it down, it's, it can be several, 

[00:37:17] Vanessa: multiple. 

[00:37:18] Shana: And so they had lots of credit cards, student loans, even just personal loans. Personal loans, loans, vehicle, like all of it. And um, and they're not the only ones, but their particular story, Vanessa's like, okay, well, so we were usually like, okay, well when you get credit card debt free, okay, well we're gonna with, this one's gonna be like, okay.

When you pay these three off, that's gonna be, we're gonna like, okay, celebrate, and then we can add the other ones or whatever. And then, so they baby steps, slowly have milestones and they went out on date night. Every time they meet like a little milestone, 

[00:37:45] Vanessa: I would put like a line in their, in their budget tracker or their, their debt tracker.

I'm like, okay, when we hit this line, then this is the celebration. And then when after that, this line. And, but you had to, with that much debt, you have to find a way to celebrate along the way. [00:38:00] Otherwise you're gonna feel just. Discouraged. And this is another reason why we don't like when people consolidate their debts.

Because instead of paying off all the small debts individually and feeling like you're making success, now you've lumped 'em all together and you feel like you're never ever gonna make any 

[00:38:14] Penny Fitzgerald: insurmountable. 

[00:38:15] Shana: Well. Mm-hmm. And, and then what, where they went though. I remember when they graduated and we had 'em on, we had 'em, um, a chat with him and we, the husband was like, for the first time in our life, we, and they were young.

They were, they're super sweet, they were younger, but we have a comma in our savings account. And for that, that was a big deal for him. And, and, uh, they're doing so well now. They, they bought their house, they're doing really well and they have multiple commas in their savings account, but they had one. 

[00:38:36] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, comma.

I'm like, they what? Yeah, 

[00:38:39] Shana: like $1,000. 

[00:38:40] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. 

[00:38:41] Shana: They went from 

[00:38:42] Vanessa: nothing, 

[00:38:42] Shana: 30 plus debt, just not even being able to buy groceries, um, to a comma. And that was his, like, his big takeaway and it was really lovely. And, and so. If that's, you are not that bad. See, you're already doing great. You know what I mean? If you, if you don't have 30 plus debts, you're basically a millionaire.

That's what we're [00:39:00] saying. And um, but it really is just, again, it's all about like simplifying and then separating and then automating because it, and it works for everybody. Mm-hmm. It works for any income, any these situation. Um, and you know, there's a lot of different versions of horror stories, Penny. So that was really bad.

They like, like we said, they couldn't afford groceries, but some people, it's just like every time I bring up money, it's a fight with my spouse. Like every time there's like some, and we just cannot talk about this for some people, um, they don't know how to say no to their kids, right? They feel this like guilt, oh, like everybody has their different version of, you know, horror or horror story or what's making money feel heavy to them.

And we just want to take that away. We want you to not feel that way. 

[00:39:39] Vanessa: Well, and I think that's what sets us apart, apart about not having a cookie cutter budget because what you have going on in your life is really heavy to you. And what another person has going on is something totally different. But it's really heavy for them, right?

And so for them, it may not be talking to their spouse like they've already talked about it. They're good. But there is an another situation that they're [00:40:00] dealing with with their finances that they just can't get, they can't get over the hump. But coming together and being able to see it and, and talk about it and work through it, like we have seen all of these problems.

It doesn't matter what it is. We've been able to work with them because it's based on their situation and what they have going on, not some cookie cutter solution. 

[00:40:20] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow, that's, I, I can just feel the relief that some, that your clients must have. 

[00:40:25] Shana: Mm-hmm. 

[00:40:26] Penny Fitzgerald: Because money for so many people is heavy. Or has some, you have some past experience with it that drives your decisions or that drives what you think about it, and you take that away.

I mean, you just make it, here's your one page, let's do it. And the celebrations along the way. I mean, I think that's true of anything, like when you have goals, even not monetary or financial ones. You. You have a goal. You have to hit those milestones along the way. You have to break it down into smaller, smaller pieces.

Celebrate those. When [00:41:00] you reach those milestones. 

[00:41:02] Shana: Absolutely. And I think, you know, for our clients, you know, a lot of times it's, oh, I, I, I have money like just celebr the fact that I, I am still, I'm doing what I said and I have money in my bank account when I look like what's actually happening. Um, and then, and then it builds, you know, to, I went on my first debt-free vacation.

Or I, um, paid for my son's college tuition in, in cash, or, you know, what, whatever their, their, their little celebrations and milestones are. It's, it's, it's all, it's all very possible as long as you actually put it on paper and look at the numbers. 

[00:41:36] Vanessa: Well, and you know, one of the things like to say is we want them to become their own bank.

Like, we want you to be able to fund your future and the way that you see it for yourself. Uh, when we have clients telling us, I've never had this much money in the bank before, it's really awesome. They say, I have more money in the bank than my credit card limit allows. And so because for so long they were reliant on that credit card to help them with [00:42:00] essentials, and that was their emergency fund and now it's obsolete.

They don't need it because they have become their own bank. They have all this money in the bank and, and it's not that they make millions of dollars. Instead, everything was organized and we gave it a plan, we gave it a purpose, and then they automated it and made it happen. So that way they didn't have to touch it.

And they were able to let that, the automation and those savings build while they were living their life over here in their spending accounts. And it all just worked. Right? So you make good money, you should be able to have something to show for, and that's what we want for you. 

[00:42:33] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. And it's just so, um.

Insurmountable or look, it feels that way when you're get getting started. If you're, I imagine clients that come to you when they first come to you are probably like just beside themselves or feeling a lot of stress, a lot of strain, not sure where to start, and this overwhelm of how do I, how do I even make this happen?

[00:42:55] Vanessa: Yeah. Oh, for sure. I, I think that there's a lot of, a lot of judgment, a [00:43:00] lot of shame. I have, I had a lawyer, she was last year, and she. It was really hard for her. She was a single mom and she said it is. She like me having this conversation right now. She's like, I'm shaking. I know you can't see it on the screen, but I am.

And girl, we got her so set up and so confident in her numbers and her budget when she graduated the last month of coaching, I barely had to do anything because she. Already did all her homework. She had everything all set up and she did that on her own. And she knew exactly what was going on with her money every step of the way.

And yes, there were things that popped up during coaching that we were gonna put money on debt, but we couldn't because she had an AC go out and different things. But it didn't matter because all of that money that she spent on those things she paid for in cash because we just organized everything 

[00:43:44] Shana: and that's why our heart breaks because we see that over and over.

Yeah. Like they are putting that anxiety, that shame, that that guilt, yeah, that pressure on themselves. But it's not. If, if you can go from one to the other in six months, it wasn't that you're bad with money. It was [00:44:00] clearly, that is what we're trying to say, that you just don't have an organization, you don't have a system, you don't have, or it organized in a way that's working for you.

What, what you're doing is. Not working. Love you so much, but for the most part, what we've seen is probably not working. And you're relying on like, like willpower, right? Instead of a system that does it for you. What we like to say is, you know, because we're simplifying them, we're separating, then we're automating it.

Your bank is gonna do all the budget thing that you figure out, that you put. It's gonna do it all for you. It's gonna transfer it and save it for you and pay your bills. If you can do that, then you're you. It's like you, when Vanessa was talking, uh, about the other analogy earlier, it was funny, it reminded me of the analogy with going to the gym on January 1st you have to go to the gym and then you also January 2nd, you also have to go on January 3rd.

Like it just, what the difference? And you have to rely on willpower every day to get your booty up to go to the gym. Right. With our system. You don't have to do that. You've set it up once, and like we just said, the bank runs the budget for you. It puts your money in savings for you. It pays your bills, and it gives you spending money on [00:45:00] paydays so that you can go spend your little sweet money at wherever the, wherever you wanna spend money.

And we've taken the willpower out of it. We've, we've taken that pressure. It's doing it for you and you can just be happy and confident. 

[00:45:11] Vanessa: And I will say one thing that we didn't mention before, but there's no tracking required in anything that we do. So we do not have people track their everyday expenses that is sine, and that takes so much time, nobody wants to do.

So think of all of that, setting up a system that's automatic, and then also hello. You don't have to track anything along the way because the system is, is it done for you? Like, yes, please sign me up. Check. 

[00:45:37] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. That, that whole, um, tracking of things, first of all, you have to be able to remember that, oh yeah, I just spent five bucks on something.

[00:45:43] Vanessa: Willpower. Yeah. 

[00:45:44] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Willpower and discipline. Right? Discipline. There's another, 

[00:45:48] Vanessa: ugh. Or pay for an app that's trying to make you do it for you and then yells at you if you swipe your card. Don't do that. Oh, 

[00:45:53] Penny Fitzgerald: geez. 

[00:45:54] Vanessa: You say we, we've heard it. It's so, it's interesting. 

[00:45:57] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. Yeah, that doesn't sound [00:46:00] fun. 

[00:46:00] Vanessa: No. Can you imagine having an app that yells at you every time you gotta go?

Do you try to go buy milk for your kids? 

[00:46:04] Shana: Petty. Do you know what is fun though? Like you're like, oh look, I have a $400 more in my vacation account this month. Wow. How exciting is that? Or, oh, it's Friday and I'm just not saying I can go to the game tonight or. What's something fun people do? We only have kids sports right now that we don't know what, but I get that, oh, they're gonna to concert or they're gonna go, you know, yeah, go drink wine with their friends at the, at the bar or whatever.

Like, I have money in my account and I know my bills are already paid. Don't have to worry about that. And I already stay for vacation. I'm just gonna go have a good time. Like, that's what we want for you. We want it to be fun. We do not want it to be any of those other things. Um, that, that we mentioned.

Any of those other boo words, they were boo. Um, we want, and, and, and we, we just know you're capable of it. Like, here's the deal. You're successful in other areas of your life, we know you can do it. The only difference here is you just haven't, you just don't have the system yet. That's it. And then you can, you'll be as successful in this area of your life as you were, as you are in all the other areas.

[00:46:59] Vanessa: You [00:47:00] just need the tools. You need someone to help you with the tools, and that's why they make professionals. 

[00:47:03] Shana: Yeah. 

[00:47:03] Vanessa: And they make things because, listen, there are things that I am not good at, and I find somebody who is good in that to help me. And this, this area of budgeting is no different. Mm-hmm. 

[00:47:13] Penny Fitzgerald: It's important to have the outside eyes looking in at it.

Like we were talking about way earlier. That, and the automations are so important in anything, right. In this and yeah. And anytime you're like in business as an entrepreneur, I rely on systems to, to be able to do some of those, to things that are repetitive and you know, so that you can focus on the things that you're good at.

Right. Things that. Bring the income 

[00:47:35] Shana: and as much as we are nerds and we love talking about budgets and math, you don't have to be that way. You don't have to. So we just let us 

[00:47:43] Vanessa: not required, 

[00:47:44] Shana: let us teach you real quick. You set it up, like you just said, set up the automation and then you don't have to do the math yourself and that that's what we're here for.

We're here to help you not have to do math. I think that's really like a great, that's probably the best elevator pitch I've ever heard. 

[00:47:56] Vanessa: You don't know how many clients, like in between sessions, they got so [00:48:00] nervous at the very beginning of like starting coaching. And they're like, I don't know, I just touched something.

'cause I was nervous and I was like, okay, well let's put that back. You know? But it's because they're so used to having to be in there and touch things that when they realize that they don't know, they no longer have to do that. They're like bored and they feel like there's something wrong because they're not touching things.

And so it takes a minute for them to sink in. I had a client that graduated and she spent every Saturday morning on the back porch with her coffee and all of her bills freaking out about trying to figure out how she was gonna pay everything or how it was all gonna work. Oh, 

[00:48:31] Shana: wow. 

[00:48:31] Vanessa: And then once we got everything set up, the literally, she said to me, what am I supposed to do now on Saturday mornings?

I was like, anything else? 

[00:48:38] Shana: Literally anything 

[00:48:39] Vanessa: else? Do anything else, 

[00:48:40] Shana: yeah. 

[00:48:41] Vanessa: Besides that. And it was just so freeing for her. But yeah, so it's just the idea of. Just removing that weight of having, yeah. Feeling like you have to be in so much control over it to setting everything up automatically and you don't have to worry about it.

[00:48:56] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Speaking of horror stories, oh my God. [00:49:00] You don't wanna start your weekend like that. Oh, 

[00:49:02] Shana: you don't. But so many people, we have this, um, we have this dream of like just having a slideshow of all the bad budgets people have, have sent in. Mm-hmm. That's what they're doing because it's so unorganized.

They're trying to be organized, like we give 'em all the credit card. 

[00:49:17] Vanessa: Mm-hmm. 

[00:49:17] Shana: They'll have like a calendar and like due dates and like paycheck dates, and for some reason they, or they feel like, okay, I budgeted. 

[00:49:24] Vanessa: Yeah. They think they're doing something 

[00:49:26] Shana: and then they have to go back like Minnesota and track everything and be like, okay, did this.

And it is like, oh, but you're so close, but you're so far and you're spending way too much time on this and you're stressed about it when you could be doing literally anything else. Mm-hmm. 

[00:49:37] Vanessa: It's like, it could be so different for you. We just wanna show you a different way. 

[00:49:41] Shana: Mm-hmm. 

[00:49:42] Vanessa: Like, that's our goal. I just want to show you something different.

[00:49:46] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Taking that weight off. 

[00:49:48] Vanessa: Yes. 

[00:49:49] Penny Fitzgerald: Keeping it joyful. 

[00:49:51] Vanessa: Mm-hmm. 

[00:49:52] Penny Fitzgerald: Speaking of joyful, can I switch gears on you? 

[00:49:55] Vanessa: Oh yeah. Yeah. 

[00:49:57] Penny Fitzgerald: Awesome. Okay. So you keep, 

[00:49:58] Shana: you have to, you 

[00:49:59] Penny Fitzgerald: [00:50:00] have to, so what is your favorite cocktail or glass of wine? What do you guys like to drink? 

[00:50:06] Shana: Hmm. Well I'll start 'cause of you'll see why, um, I, this is gonna sound really self-serving, but it's not.

My husband and I, typically on Friday night, if there's not some chi child taking up our date night, we like to go to the brewery. I like an amber. I like an amber. And you know, we actually do budgets at the brewery 'cause we're both super nerdy like that. We, I bring my computer and we do our budget. I'm not even kidding.

Um, and so that's my favorite. That's what I, that's where my jam is. And we have a good time every, usually, every Friday. Yeah, 

[00:50:37] Penny Fitzgerald: I love it. So you do a budget date night? Yeah. 

[00:50:41] Shana: And listen, it's budget and brewery, like the So alliteration. Okay. You get alliteration. 

[00:50:45] Vanessa: Well, there's a couple. I 

[00:50:46] Penny Fitzgerald: love 

[00:50:46] Vanessa: alliteration, like barbans and budgets.

You can do beers and budgets. You can do the, the brewery and budget. 

[00:50:51] Shana: Like 

[00:50:51] Penny Fitzgerald: it's 

[00:50:51] Vanessa: mm-hmm. There's so many options there, 

[00:50:52] Shana: but it's just part of that 

[00:50:53] Penny Fitzgerald: burgundy, bordeaux, 

[00:50:55] Vanessa: go girl. She's like, I'm gonna continue. Go. 

[00:50:58] Shana: Yeah. So, um, but the deal, [00:51:00] the, the point there is it can be fun like we're doing, we're not like.

Fighting about it. We're like, Hey, look how much is in our grease trip? Look what's 

[00:51:06] Vanessa: possible, 

[00:51:06] Shana: or whatever. And, and it's fun and, and we want, like we said, we wanna take that taboo out of the money conversation, you know? Yeah. Okay. 

[00:51:13] Penny Fitzgerald: Vanessa, what about you? What's your favorite? 

[00:51:15] Vanessa: Do 

[00:51:15] Penny Fitzgerald: you have a favorite? Um, 

[00:51:17] Vanessa: so, so I'm Portuguese, right?

So my whole family is, we're all European, and, um, you would think that I would drink, girl. I tried. 

[00:51:24] Shana: Everyone else does enough for you. 

[00:51:25] Vanessa: I know. I tried, tried the wine. I tried the, the like pina coladas. I've tried all of it. I just, I can't do it. I don't know what, it don't 

[00:51:34] Penny Fitzgerald: like it. 

[00:51:35] Vanessa: It's fine. So I'm a super boring water girl, but I can see 

[00:51:38] Shana: you're not boring.

[00:51:39] Vanessa: Well, I'm, well, my drink is boring. 

[00:51:41] Shana: That's not, 

[00:51:42] Vanessa: I 

[00:51:42] Shana: don't think that's fair. That's 

[00:51:43] Vanessa: fine. If, does it matter that I add lemon? 

[00:51:45] Shana: Yes, I think it does. 

[00:51:46] Penny Fitzgerald: I think that is bougie. That's, 

[00:51:49] Vanessa: I think lemon's bougie. 

[00:51:50] Shana: You wanna know what's really bougie is we go to our favorite restaurant in town and they're like, okay, that'll be two waters with no, with lemon and no ice.

We're like, yes, please. Thank you. They 

[00:51:57] Vanessa: know 

[00:51:57] Shana: what, that's exactly what, oh yeah. [00:52:00] Our sushi plain such dorks. It's fine. 

[00:52:01] Vanessa: They're soy. Listen, my husband drinks. My parents like, it's just fine everyone. That's fair. That's 

[00:52:06] Shana: what I'm saying. There's 

[00:52:07] Vanessa: really important 

[00:52:08] Penny Fitzgerald: to have. You gotta have a designated driver too. So that's Oh, 

[00:52:12] Vanessa: if I'm good.

[00:52:13] Penny Fitzgerald: Everybody has their role. 

[00:52:15] Vanessa: I that girl, don't you worry. 

[00:52:18] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my gosh, I love it. Yeah. Well, and they're mocktails are having a moment, so I mean, there's all kinds of 

[00:52:24] Vanessa: fun things. Yeah. Wonderful. Virgin pina clo. I love that coconut. Like that frozen coconut. That's my favorite. 

[00:52:30] Penny Fitzgerald: That's a really yummy flavor. Mm-hmm.

It just takes you to a beach, right? 

[00:52:34] Shana: It does. And we live at the beach, so it works out. 

[00:52:36] Penny Fitzgerald: Where are you guys? 

[00:52:38] Shana: We are in, um, the Panhandle of Florida. 

[00:52:41] Vanessa: Mm-hmm. 

[00:52:42] Shana: So you, you go to Sarasota, right? 

[00:52:44] Penny Fitzgerald: I'm in Sarasota right now. Yeah. 

[00:52:46] Shana: Yeah. We're not that far away from each other. North. 

[00:52:49] Penny Fitzgerald: We're neighbors almost. That's so fun.

Oh my gosh. Okay. So is there anything that I haven't asked you that you would love to [00:53:00] share? 

[00:53:01] Shana: Um, just that, you know, if people wanna check out the system, you know, we, we'd love to invite them to do that. Uh, they can go to budget besties.com/ Penny. 

Ooh, 

[00:53:11] Penny Fitzgerald: ooh. 

[00:53:12] Shana: Easy. Yeah. And they can just check it out and just understand that, you know, you figuring this out is one of the best investments you're gonna ever make in yourself.

You know, and I, I know that you know this Penny as a coach. Sometimes we just need to make the investment in our, in ourselves, and, and this is what that is. It's going to give you some financial Yeah, like training and literacy that you just, you didn't know, but it's gonna affect every other part of your life for the better and 

[00:53:35] Vanessa: for less than a trip to target, you can literally have a system in place.

To where, and again, like Shannon said, this may be the first time that you've ever, ever invested in yourself like this. 

[00:53:44] Shana: Mm-hmm. 

[00:53:44] Vanessa: Right. Um, financially. 'cause you may have invested in other parts of your life and other areas of your life. Mm-hmm. But never finance, but never your finances. So this is just a chance to, you know, take the reins on this and stop putting your head in the sand.

And finally stand tall and know what's going on with your money so [00:54:00] that way you can plan all these wonderful trips. 'cause you have a trip coming up in 2026. You're little. Yep. Yep. 

[00:54:05] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Wine camp. You've been stalking me. I love it. 

[00:54:09] Vanessa: We're a 

little 

[00:54:09] Shana: bit, 

[00:54:09] Vanessa: you can, I think we warned you. Put your wine camp in the budget.

Save for it. And that's an annual thing that you know you do every year and you're always saving for it. Mm-hmm. Like it's never a surprise, so love it. Dot com slash Penny. 

[00:54:23] Penny Fitzgerald: I will put that in my show notes too, in my emails and things so everyone can find you very easily. 

[00:54:28] Vanessa: Thank you. That's 

[00:54:29] Penny Fitzgerald: wonderful. Oh gosh, guys, this has been so fun.

[00:54:32] Shana: Yeah. Yeah. We're, we're very, we're very lucky to be able to talk to people like you, like we're lucky to be able to do what we do because you, you know, everybody has their gift and we really, like I said, we're budget nerds. We like to do this, but the other cool thing is we to talk to other cool people, which was an unexpected surprise, like, but now we get to make these relationships and, and talk like real, genuine conversations like we did.

And so we just really appreciate that opportunity. 

[00:54:56] Penny Fitzgerald: Absolutely. Yeah, I, I've met two new friends. I love it. [00:55:00] 

[00:55:00] Shana: Budget besties. Yes. Maybe. 

[00:55:02] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Budget besties for me. 

[00:55:04] Vanessa: Talk about keyword. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:55:08] Penny Fitzgerald: Awesome. Thank you so much ladies. I appreciate your time and all of your energy and your tips for us. It's been wonderful.

[00:55:15] Vanessa: Well, thanks again for having us, Penny. 

[00:55:16] Penny Fitzgerald: Absolutely. Have a great day. 

[00:55:21] Vanessa: Okay. Bye. You too. 

​